Skynet's Matrix
by JacobKragoff
Summary: As John Conner blocks the sun off from the Terminators, they discover the use of human energy. As the Resistance constructs the underground city "Zion", Skynet constructs their greatest creation yet. They call it... The Matrix.
1. Chapter 1

Skynet's Matrix

Chapter 1

Marcus walked through the base, looking for Fleming who was now a sergeant. It had been luck that back in 2018, Conner's heart ended up not needing to be transplanted. As Marcus was put to sleep for the surgery, they found that the bar had missed John's heart by only two inches and so Marcus had lived. His wife, Blair, had just been pronounced pregnant by Kate, which sent only worry in Marcus's mind. John and Kate were having trouble with their daughter Alex. Kate said it was very complicated raising a child in the hells of the new and worst world war. Alex Conner was born January 3rd, 2019. She was born at a base in San Francisco where the resistance was safest now after they had reclaimed the city from Skynet. They were even working on making an underground city exactly 100 miles from the San Francisco base. It was to be called "Zion" and from what Marcus had seen of it, it was extraordinary. They were currently in a base called "Eagle Rock" in L.A. The base used to belong to the machines as well but was claimed by the resistance. After the death of the leadership in 2018 when an H.K had sent a missal at the submarine where command was, John Conner had been appointed the new commander of the entire resistance. All the soldiers had agreed. They looked to him as a new Moses or Jesus in their time of greatest need and his leadership skills had proved stronger than even his now deceased mother Sarah Conner could have predicted. However, Skynet might have just pushed John over the edge. He seemed agitated now after their new discovery about Skynet. They had found something that could win the war, but at a terrible price.

Marcus sat next to Sergeant Fleming at the meeting table with Conner at the front.

"Okay," John said in his gruff voice. "We know that the machines depend mostly on solar power. So, we have to block the sun from them."  
"Exactly, how the hell are we gonna do that?" asked Blair.

"We have a newer type of exhaust that can be released from our jets. The stuff is supposedly permanent. If we can get the resistances all over the world from the other countries to comply with the plan, we should be able to block the sun from the world."

There was silence before Fleming asked

"How will we get the sun light we need?"

"Sun lamps," John replied. "We'll use sun lamps. They work fine on human ski-,"

"NO!" shouted Marcus.

They all stared at him.

"Damn it Conner! We can't just block the sun! Looking at that ball in the sky can give people hope. I'm not about to make the planet completely unrecognizable. I thought you were opposed to making cold calculated choices and now you want us to cover up the sun like it's some old furniture."

"I'm sorry," John said. "But it's something we have to do to stop Skynet!"

Marcus shook his head.

"Fine, it aint my choice anyway. Do what you want and ruin the planet. I'd rather leave the Earth than wreck it but it's your decision. I'll be in my room."

He walked off and slammed the door behind him. John bent his head in gloom. The others looked at him.  
"What do we do now?" Kate asked.

John's head looked up.

"We get ready to cut the machines off from their energy source. We get ready to…wreck them."

"It's 2020, I'd have thought we would be almost done now," said a small boy to one of his friends. As Marcus walked by, he thought about how the boy was right. The war had been going on since 2005, one year after judgment day. The whole planet had gone straight to hell. Marcus sat on his bed and began thinking about what they were about to do. He heard the door open and looked up, expecting to see Blair, but saw Kyle and Star.

"Y… you… you don't have to be a… afraid Marcus," said… Star.

Marcus and Kyle's eyes went wide with shock. Star had just spoken for the first time in years.  
"Oh my God," Kyle said as a huge grin spread across his face. "Star, you talked!"

She smiled.

"Marcus, we have a big fight ahead of us, but we can do it. We can clear that smoke off the sky after Skynet dies. You don't have to worry about that."

He smiled.

"You're right Star."

He got up and walked to Kyle.

"Look's like we've got Skynet by the balls now," Marcus said.

Note: My chapters will get longer; this was just a beginning to my Terminator/ Matrix story. I knew those two films would go together perfectly. Well, please REVIEW!


	2. Chapter 2

Skynet's Matrix

Chapter 2

The jets were fueled and the pilots were given an explanation by Commander Conner. They didn't like it. What they were doing was blocking the beam of hope from the otherwise destroyed world. They were practically obliterating it. John walked to Marcus and said

"I'm sorry. We have to do this."

Marcus looked up at John.

"After Skynet's destroyed… will we be able to clean up the smoke?" he inquired.

"I wasn't lying to those pilots you know," John answered. "We'll be able to clear it, but it'll take time. All we can do now is hope."  
"I thought we were gettin' rid of hope," Marcus grumbled.

John looked at him.

"The future isn't written, so if this works… it'll save a lot of lives. But it might loose me mine."

Marcus starred at him.

"What do you mean?"

John sighed.

"I can hardly explain it, but you know how I told you about the time machine that Skynet's gonna make along with plasma guns?"

Marcus nodded.

"Let's just say that for now, those things might never have to happen."

He walked away as Blair came in. She was holding her enlarged stomach. She was still beautiful even if she was pregnant.

"Sitting this one out?" Kyle asked Blair as the both took seats on either side of Marcus.

"Yep," Blair replied. "Kate says it would be better for the baby."

"That's good to know," said Marcus.

He looked at the jets as they shot of like bullets into the air. He saw John turning away, as if unable to watch.

Everyone on the ground looked up in depression as the blackened smoke blew out of the engines of the planes. It was hard to believe how much could come out of the jets. It started as a small group of darkness, but then began to grow like the blackest cloud the Earth had ever seen. It was expanding all ways, to the left, the right, forwards, and backward. It was shielding them all from the sun light, not that anyone truly wished for this to happen. There was nothing but darkness and they saw all of the clouds become polluted by the smoke and they too turned black. After about 10 minuets, the whole of L.A was covered by the smoke as the jets flew away to cover more. A small tear went down Blair's check, followed by Kate's crying as she hugged her infant child. The small girl new not why the sun had disappeared but began to cry all the same. John put his arms around his small family as Marcus let Star sit on his lap. He then put his right arm around Kyle, and his left around Blair. His hand reached her stomach. He felt the baby kicking, as if it knew what was happening. Blair began to cry and Marcus felt a tightened clench in his stomach. He felt glad that his human organs kept him protected from the darkness but elsewhere, something else was taking place.

The gun fire ceased as the Terminators, Spider units, and Aerostats all fell to the ground as the sun was covered by the black smoke.

"Finally," said one trooper. "Looks like they did it."

"We have now lost our sun though," their Captain said to them with sorrow in his deep voice.

"Captain Barnes," said Harry, a 21 year old who was still new to the Resistance. "At least the war might be over in a little while. I just wonder how Mike will feel."

Mike was Harry's younger brother who he had to take care of after the death of their father in 2016. Mike was now 13 and would probably be devastated at the loss of the sun.

"Okay, pack up people!" shouted Barnes. "It's time to head out. Let's move! Come on, come-,"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three gunshots and Barnes fell to the ground.

Harry looked around and saw his captain fall.

"NOOOOO!" he screamed.

He ran to the fallen man as he looked and saw more machines coming toward them, but they weren't like any Skynet machines he had ever seen before. They had about eight tube like legs swirling behind them as if they were swimming. They had many robotic eyes which glowed bright red. The moved like octopuses. Bullets came shooting out of their heads and more men were going down. Harry picked up his gun and started to smother an incoming octopus bot. He savored the sight of it falling to the ground, no longer hovering like an aerostat (aka Wasp). He turned Barnes over so he could look at him.

Barnes had a trickle of blood running down his check out of his mouth.

"I… s… see… my brother," he whispered.

"Cap…. Barnes," Harry said as tears fell from his eyes.

Barnes looked at him with an expression of determination.  
"Don't l… let those bastards win," he growled.

"I promise," Harry assured him. "Skynet will fall."

Barnes smiled. That was the first time Harry had ever seen him smile.

"Love ya kid. Tell Conner and the others…. I love 'em all too."

Harry nodded and began to sob as Barnes closed his eyes and let his head lower down to the pavement. Harry continued to sob and screech as he was pulled away by other men. Barnes… one of the most brilliant commanders the resistance had ever seen, had fallen.

Harry's team reached the L.A base soon. They told Commander Conner how the new machines seemed unaffected by the sun's disappearance and how they had killed Captain Barnes.

John slammed his fist on the planted and cursed at the top of his voice, using God's name with 'Damn it' to show how infuriated he was.

"So we covered up the sun for nothing?" he shouted.

"The older machines shut down when the sun was blocked sir but these other things seemed fine," said a random sniper.

"There were so many. It freaked the hell out of me," another man whispered in a quivering voice.

Kate and one of John's followers, a girl named Ilene, were crying at the news of Barnes's death.

Harry sat in silence. He was shaking after watching his mentor die in a matter of seconds. It didn't seem fair. Why would God let something like this happen?

Marcus put his hand on Harry's right shoulder.

"I'm sorry ya had to see that Harry," Marcus told him. "I really wish I was there. I could have helped. I would have heard the machines coming and could have warned Barnes."

"It's not your fault Marcus," Harry rejoined.

"Yeah, we couldn't have known that this would happen," moaned John. "How the hell did Skynet know?"

"I wanna find out," said Marcus. "I have to get to a Skynet base so I can get information from one of their computers."

There was silence before John said

"It's our best option."


	3. Chapter 3

Skynet's Matrix

Chapter 3

The new machines had been nicknamed Octopuses. The human race had a tendency to nickname the various machines after animals, insects, and arachnids. The octopuses had been causing chaos for the resistance for a whole week now and whatever they were doing to keep alive, the Terminators also knew the secret. They were now walking around and murdering more than usual. However the machine type which seemed the busiest were the harvesters. They were working on capturing as many human prisoners as they could. John had no idea why but was well aware that Marcus would find out what it was soon. There had been a plan put together where they would stage a bombing on the nearest Skynet base. During the battle, John, Marcus, Ilene, Harry, and Kyle would sneak into the base mostly armed with the usual weapons while John would be carrying a stolen plasma riffle. Marcus would be equipped with a plasma powered mini- gun. Once they reached the computer lab, they would buy Marcus enough time to log in to the system and discover how Skynet was still online. It seemed to be a good plan but John knew it was risky. However, he was willing to try it so as to destroy the machines. The next day, all of the helicopters were filled with soldiers, fuel, and gun power. Marcus kissed Blair as he was called to step onto the helicopter.

"Make sure you do grab Skynet by the balls," she muttered to him.

"I'll be back," was his reply.

He jumped up onto the helicopter as John signaled for Oscar mike which meant 'leaving'. The medal blades on the top of the helicopter whirled faster than one could watch as it lifted into the air and began to follow the other air craft.

"For Barnes," growled Harry as he loaded ammo into his gun.

Two whole hours later and they had arrived to find that the ground troopers had already begun the battle. There was gunfire everywhere and no cries of terror, only of anger. The humans were indeed "pissed" that they hadn't won the war and had given up their sun for nothing but were ready to retaliate.

Kyle aimed the rocket launcher at the main turret and shouted

"Payback's a bitch Skynet!"

He shot the rocket down at the turret and laughed as it exploded.

"Land the helicopter next to that entrance after Kyle shoots it!" shouted Conner to the pilot who nodded in acknowledgment.

BANG!

The second rocket shot out of Kyle's gun and headed straight down to the group of Terminators, wasps, Spiders, and Octopuses who stood guard. The explosion doubled every few seconds as another machine blew up. Marcus clapped Kyle on the back as everyone cheered. The helicopter landed right where the fire was clearing. Kyle left the rocket launcher and picked up his machine gun. He ran to the door with the others as John shot it open with the plasma riffle. As it did, there was more plasma fire as a Terminator on the other side shot at them. They ducked for cover but one was too late.

"AAAAAGGHH!" screamed Ilene as she a burning whole opened in her stomach, the result of plasma fire.

"NOOOOO!" screamed John as she collapsed.

"You killed her you shit Terminator!" screeched Harry.

Marcus took his mini- gun and yelled as they plasma bullets hit the machine and caused it to fall to the ground.

Its red eyes went out as Kyle began to cry over Ilene's body.

"There's nothing you can do for her Kyle," Harry cried, pulling Kyle away from her.

He tried to protest, but was pulled into the building anyway.

The door was closed by John and Marcus as Harry held the wailing Kyle.

"I'm gonna kill SKYNET!" Kyle screamed to God.

Tears fell from the others as well.

"Kyle, we've gotta keep going. It's the only way to help destroy the machines," Harry convinced him.

He nodded as they made their way through the building. They came to a lab with high tech, gleaming computers. Marcus put his hand on one of them and said

"I think I can access it from here. Everyone be quite."

He closed his flickering eyes. After a whole minuet the lids flew open.

"The Matrix," he said.

All of a sudden, the computers all lit up and the screens showed black with green longitude lines of words and numbers all flickering.

Marcus gasped.

"What is it?" asked John.  
"What did you see?" asked Harry.

"Why don't I explain that?" said a voice from the largest computer.

A dark haired, pale woman appeared on the screen.

She was at first green like the lines but formed to look like

"Doctor Kogren," said Marcus.

"Yes," she replied. "Well, I could also assume the form of Skynet's program that created this Matrix."

"What's the Matrix?" John demanded.

"Well, let me start from the beginning," she said but in an older man's voice.

Her fetchers changed as she morphed into an old man with snowy white hair.

"Hello," he greeted. "I am the program that was constructed in the Skynet computers to make a sort of… Sims like world, except that it would look, feel, and sound like reality. I should tell you that we expected you to discover our need for solar energy and so we thought radically and came up with a solution. In 2015 we began capturing humans, not just for skin harvesting, but to study. We now know your methods and from history we knew what to make everything look and act like. After studying your bodies, we began to grow humans from fields."

John shook his head.

"Impossible."

"Humans used to believe that self aware machines were impossible but here we are sixteen years after Judgment day occurred. I designed a master piece where there would be no death or destruction. However, the humans we plugged into the Matrix knew something was wrong. Even though they had never been in the real world, they still thought that there was something incorrect with their world. They died and there was nothing but chaos. So now, we have changed it so that it is exactly like your world used to be, chaotic."

"You don't think this is chaotic?" shouted Marcus.

"Oh Marcus, we know it is. So we are trying to make things better for humans. The humans we grow are as real as you are but they don't have to live in the hell that you live in. They are in piece. In a world that right now is experiencing the events of the year 1970. We decided to begin the Matrix world in the year 1965 with programs pretending to be human adults so that it would seem to the youths that were the first to be plugged in that they were born into 1965. Now they are five years old in the year 1970. If you do not believe me then look at this."

His face disappeared off the screen which now showed a video of a dark place with many towers that all had what looked like small pools with a pink, thick, liquid that each held one small naked, bald five year old child with tubes coming out of its mouth, chest, neck, and back. The video vanished as the man's face came back on.

"I am sorry if this upsets you-,"

His voice and face changed back to Kogren's.

"- but the matrix helps us keep order. Without being born from the fields, you can't enter the matrix. It is impossible for you to hack. So all in all, we have created the perfect system. To keep order, we have programs that look like human men dressed in black suits with hand guns. They are staged as FBI, CIA, and S.S agents. It is the perfect way to keep order, wouldn't you agree Marcus?"

He glared at her.

"Go to hell Skynet," he said.

He raised the plasma mini- gun and began to fire at all of the monitors and computers until Kogren's face vanished in a flicker of light and static.

"Let's get out of here," Harry said.

They came running out of the base as their helicopter was drawing near, still in the sky.

"We've got the data in Marcus!" John shouted into the radio. "Get us out of here!"

"Copy that," answered their pilot through the other radio on the helicopter.

Suddenly, there was a blast of plasma fire as a jet of blue light shot out of the air and hit the copter. The pilot screamed as it exploded and went down.

John, Harry, Marcus, and Kyle looked up in shock to see a tall harvester.

John cursed as Marcus shot at it.

"Don't waste your ammo," shouted Kyle. "It won't do any good. Let's just run!"

They began to charge the opposite direction of where the harvester was firing. The rest of the aircraft was destroyed as John and his team darted behind a burning jet which had fallen from the sky.

The harvester didn't seem them as it began to climb onto an H.K. The H.K shot off into the air and away from the remains of the battle.

When it had gone, Kyle came out from behind the jet, followed by the others.

"Skynet's gone from here," he said. "But all of our men are dead. Why would they just abandon this place?"

"I don't know," Marcus answered.

John looked down at all of the bodies of dead men who had been brave enough to go on a reckless mission.

John ran his hands through his hair.

"I can't believe this. I just can't believe this."

They set up camp with some salvaged supplies from helicopters that had crashed.

John removed his shirt as he got into his sleeping bag. Marcus, Kyle, and Harry did the same thing.

"Night guys," Kyle wished them as he closed his tired, heavy, tear stained eyes.

"Good night kid," John replied.

'Good night dad' was what he said in his mind.


	4. Chapter 4

Skynet's Matrix

Chapter 4

John awoke suddenly. He looked around him and saw that the others were awake and getting dressed into the extra clothes they had brought.

"Morning Conner," said Marcus.

"We were gonna wake you," said Harry.

"So why didn't you?" asked John.

"Thought you could use more sleep," Kyle answered as he picked up his sleeping bag and began to stuff it into his day pack.

"So, where are we headed John?" Harry inquired.

"I thought we should head for Zion. It's only ten miles from here."

"So that should take us about eight hours if we're lucky," Marcus thought aloud.

"Yeah," John said, changing his clothes.

"We should pack light," Harry suggested. "It'll still be hot even if we can't see the sun."

"Got it," Kyle acknowledged.

They left everything that they didn't need and began walking with their considerably lighter backpacks swung over their shoulders. As they walked, John began to think about his wife and child back in L.A. What if something happened to them? What if Skynet attacked? Would everyone get along without John Conner? Of course they would, he knew for a fact that he had trained his militia well. But what if it wasn't enough this time?

After an hour of hiking, they sat down and began to eat lunch. Harry had packed as much food from the mess hall as possible, with his mind set on being prepared. Luckily, the food hadn't gone bad yet but even if it had, John probably would have eaten it all up after not having any breakfast.

As they ate, Kyle began to talk about how the Matrix might actually be a good thing.

"I mean, why would we wanna take those people out of the Matrix and bring them into this horrible place?"

"To show them that there's more to the world then a computer sim," John told Kyle.

Kyle nodded and said

"Yeah, I guess you're right John."

After they finished eating, they got up and continued on their way to the city of Zion.

After another few hours of walking, Kyle began to ask if anyone had any extra water left. Marcus gave him some as he took his shirt off and put it away. They had all removed their shirts after it had become so hot that it took all their effort not to chug down their water. They believed that the heat would die down once the world was used to the darkness, however they were worried about how cold it would be after the heat vanished, but in this state John would love some coldness. John began to pant a bit as he realized he too was out of water. Nobody noticed this as Harry, Marcus, and Kyle began shoving and hitting each other's shoulders for some entertainment.  
"I ne… need….wa…. water," John panted.

"Here, I got some in my bag," Marcus said.

They stopped so that Marcus could remove his bag and search in it for water.

"John!" Kyle yelled in shock as John fell down onto the burning sand.

He hardly noticed the burning sensation as his mind went cloudy and his vision blurred. He saw parts of his past in his mind.

"John, come on, get your ass inside and do what your mother tells ya," Todd said in an annoyed voice to John as he and his best friend climbed onto the motorcycle.

"She's not my mother **Todd**," John replied with emphasis on the name 'Todd".

The image changed to the Terminator blocking John from gunfire back at the mall.

John screamed as the Terminator pinned him to his chest so as not to let the boy run into the line of fire.

John saw his 21 year old self holding Katherine's hand as the nuclear bombs fell above their underground safe house. He let the tears fall from his eyes as he knew Judgment day had finally come.

"John!"

He opened his eyes and saw Marcus above him, pouring water into John's mouth.

"Here, you're dehydrated. Drink the water but don't jug it."

John nodded as he sipped from the bottle.

"Thank you," he murmured.

"You're welcome," Marcus said.

After they got John back to a healthy condition, Harry began to walk saying

"Come on, we've still got five miles to go."

John stood and began to reluctantly follow.

"He's not DEAD!" Kate shouted.

"There's no other explanation Kate," Fleming said.

"No! The terminator told us that he's gonna get killed in 2025. You know about all of that time traveling shit, you should believe me."

"Fine, I believe you. However, we can't go searching the base yet. If John is smart, which he is, he'll already be heading to Zion. Just relax Kate; this is a lot to process."

"You don't know what hard to process means," Kate retorted, thinking about how she had been forced to deal with being told that her kidnappers were her ex and a time traveling machine from the future.

"We're almost there!" shouted Kyle with relief.

They could see the large tunnel that was supposed to be for aircraft to enter.

It took them fifteen minuets before they finally reached the tunnel. It was huge with a drop at the entrance that could hurt someone very much let alone the fact that it was about fifty feet to the passage into the city.

"How are we gonna do this?" asked Kyle.

"Hitch a ride from the chopper behind us," said Marcus as the others turned to see a helicopter in the distance.

"Of course," Harry laughed.

A few minuets later the chopper was lowering down to pick up the four hitch hikers.

"Hop on board," said a tall man with a brown beard that went down to his chest.

"Requesting entrance into Zion," the pilot stated to the radio.

"Request accepted," a female's voice replied from the other side. "Welcome home."

John starred at the large door opening as it revealed the most beautiful thing John had ever seen.

There were many streets made of metal that were all bridges over a black abyss. They were attached to a large metal post that stood tall in the middle of the city. On the walls of this city which looked like a gigantic garage, there were doors that led into apartments, stores, restaurants, schools, and business areas. It didn't look like a normal city but it was the perfect way to make everyone feel like they were in the early 21st century again. Children were running and playing, adults were talking over mugs of coffee, and there were even movies that had been salvaged after Judgment day. Harry Potter and the sorcerers stone was being played on one over head screen with twenty people watching. It was a pity the series was never finished because of Judgment day. There were older teens playing football and a child doing a ridiculous impression of a Terminator to entertain his friends and relatives. John and the others began laughing at the joy of it all. John found that if you pretended that you were in the future and that Judgment day had never happened, it was like living in a happy futuristic city. These were the joyful feelings one would experience if you entered the city. Harry made a mental note to bring his brother to live here one day. Mike always dreamed of cities in the past with happy people. This would be the best place for him. Marcus felt like he was whole human as he looked at the city. As for Kyle…. well… he knew Star would have the biggest smile on her face if she was brought here. This would not be the last time the four ever came to Zion.

As the chopper landed, a man with small smile wrinkles on his face and light brown hair that was turning white came to meet them.

"Hello," he greeted them. "Welcome to Zion Commander, it is an honor to meet the leader of the resistance. My name is Dillard and I'm the head of the Zion council."

"Nice to meet you too," John replied. "I'm John Conner, this is Marcus Write, this is Harry Simpson, and this is Kyle Reese.

Kyle nodded his head.

"It is a pleasure to meet you all," Dillard said cheerfully. "I'm sure you would like some rooms."

"Actually sir," Marcus interrupted. "We have some disturbing news we'd like to share with you."


	5. Chapter 5

Skynet's Matrix

Chapter 5

John and the others were ushered inside the large council room by Dillard and his guards. The room looked like a small theater. There was an elevated platform area with many seats that looked like where an audience would be seated. Down in the front there was a long head table where the leaders would sit to discuss plans with the viewers. They all took seats at the head table as John laid down everything they had learned from the Skynet network.

"Why would Skynet even allow you to discover the truth?" asked Dillard.

"They wanted to rub it in our faces," Marcus told. "I bet they wanted us to know how they had come up with a way to beat us."

"Marcus here has the information stored inside of him," John said. "We can hook him up to one of your computers and then we can take a closer look at everything, maybe find out where the fields are and destroy them."

"I don't agree with that Commander," Dillard stated. "You see, Skynet has just given us some help. They killed three billion humans on Judgment day, which is half the human race! But now they're growing humans faster than we can make them and if these humans are given the freedom to think then we can easily just find a way to unplug them from the Matrix, teach them of the events that have come to pass, and start getting more humans in the world. Skynet won't be able to stop the growing of humans because it's their only energy source now. So you see, maybe we did do the right thing by scorching the sky."

He finished his explanation as John nodded his head in agreement.

"That makes sense," said John. "But then, how are we going to kill Skynet if we won't destroy the fields?"

"We'll find a way," Harry affirmed.

Kyle smiled.

"You see Marcus, now we do have Skynet by the balls."

The other men laughed as Dillard invited them to a party in the lower levels.

"Sounds like it might be fun," Kyle said.

"Fine, but make sure you send word to our base that we're alive," John reminded.

"I'll have our radio transmitters on it immediately," Dillard assured.

Each of them was given separate rooms, which was a nice change. John changed into the clothes that he had been given and sat down. He thought they looked a bit like rags but were very comfortable. As he explored the city of Zion, he saw that almost everyone had on the same type of clothing but in different (however fading) colors. John couldn't stop thinking about Kate, Alex, and the others. He wanted her to be there terribly, but he would let Dillard's men contact them for now. He walked into a small café with Marcus and ordered some coffee. It was the best type he had drunk in sixteen years. It actually tasted like real coffee. There were apparently areas above the city where trees that grew coffee beans could be found, along with fruit trees. The resistance had chosen their location well.

Back at the L.A base, Kate was listening to a message from Zion. She was accompanied by Sergeant Fleming and Blair.

"I told you he was alive," Kate said to Fleming.

"I'm sorry I doubted that Katherine," Fleming responded. "I should have had more faith in John. He truly is one of the strongest men I have ever met."

"The Matrix," Blair said, repeating part of the message. "I can't believe the machines could ever make something so amazing."

"Wait 'till they come out with the damn time machine," Kate joked.

She walked to the radio to respond.

"So I take it that we're going to Zion?" asked Fleming.

Kate nodded.

"Oh yeah, we're going to Zion."

A huge grin spread on Blair's face.

Later that evening, John and the others made their way down to one of the lowest levels. Before entering they were instructed to remove their shirts and shoes. John didn't know why but he did so. As they entered, they saw that they were in a large sandy colored cave. It was filled with about every single resident of Zion. They were all speaking quickly until Dillard stood in front of them all on top of a large boulder on a higher level.

"Good evening!" he shouted to them all. "Let us begin this with the opening prayer."

They all bowed their heads. John had never been particularly religious but bowed his head anyway.

"Our heavenly father, we have done what we were afraid to do. We have blocked the sun to cut the machines off from their energy supply. Unfortunately, they have a new type of energy source. However, we can use it to our advantage! We have Skynet right where we want them! We created this city and no body will ever take it away from us!"

"AMEN!" the crowd shouted.

Then the music began. There was the sound of drums being hit and all of the people began to dance and jump as high into the air as they could.

John laughed with Harry as Marcus lifted young Kyle high into the air. Dillard smiled at the crowd and walked through a hole in the wall to where his advisors where waiting. Kyle laughed along with the others as he accidently fell off of Marcus and landed on Harry who caught him and shoved him to the wall momentarily. The joy could hardly be contained any longer. John opened his mouth wide and began to cheer with the crowd. He was in Zion, the safest place on Earth. There was no way the machines would find Zion. But as John celebrated, his family's lives where put in harms way.

The cargo plane, that had been salvaged and used as a transporter, flew into the air. It carried the two pilots, one of them being Blair, along with Fleming, Kate, and little Alex. Alex curled up on her mother's lap and began to suck on her thumb. Fleming smiled as he watched the young girl. It was good to know that happiness still existed in the world even with Skynet in control. If the humans were to let that happiness die out, Skynet would be undefeatable.

As Alex's eyes closed with tiredness, the hairs on the back of Fleming's head stood up. His eyes shot open with alert. He looked over and saw that Kate was also asleep.

"Blair," Fleming whispered. "Larry!"

The two pilots looked behind them.

"What?" asked Larry.

"I thought I-," Fleming started. "Hang on."

He got up and walked to the window.

He could hardly see anything as there was no sun. He looked as closely as he could but he saw, quite faintly, a large machine flying below them.

"H.K!" he shouted.

Blair cursed several words as Kate shot awake. Alex began to cry as Larry began evasive maneuvers.

The plane accelerated as Fleming picked up his rocket launcher. He pressed the emergency OPEN button and the platform went down. He leaned out as Kate got into the cockpit with the frantic Blair.

"Take this you piece of crap!" Fleming roared over the wind.

BANG!

He shot his rocket out and it landed on one engine of the hunter killer. The large ball of fire that appeared on the H.K made Fleming smile with satisfaction. He leaned closer and closer until-

"Damn it!" he yelled as the rocket launcher slipped out of his grasp. It almost fell to the darkness that was the sky but fell in between the higher area of the platform and the plane.  
"Be careful!" shouted Kate.

"Oh, really?" yelled Fleming in a sarcastic voice.

He used his right hand to hold onto the higher part of the platform as he reached with his left down to the weapon.

"Please let this work," Fleming muttered.

He reached farther, farther, farth-

'AAAAGHH!" he screamed as he slipped and lost his hold on the plane.

"NO!" Kate screamed.

He rolled down the platform with the launcher in his hand. He tried to grab onto the platform but failed.

"No!" he shouted as he fell down into the air.

SLAM!  
He was caught by metal in thin air. He looked around and saw that he was in the hand of a harvester.

He struggled, trying to get free. He raised the gun and pointed it at the head of the machine before

"AAAAGHH!"

He was shaken violently before the weapon fell out of his hand and fell, at last, down into the darkness.

The harvester glared at him with the large, desolate, Skynet made eyes. It opened a hatch in the H.K and dropped Fleming in. He fell on top of about twenty other people who were all screaming at the top of their lungs. He looked up as the hatch was slammed shut. He was no longer going to the heart of the resistance; he was going to the heart of Skynet.

"FLEMING!" Kate screamed as the H.K flew in the distance.

She starred as her friend was flown away. He was going somewhere where he could only be saved by one man… John Conner.

John walked to his room after the party with contentment in his heart. He felt like he had a normal life where he could enjoy himself instead of spending every moment deciding on bombing plans and if his family would survive the war. After Alex was born, John became a different man. He was more strict with his men but he was also sometimes, if you were lucky enough to catch him, kinder. He enjoyed life more and Zion had brought his feelings to a level of joy that he had never thought he would experience again. It was extraordinary how good Zion made him feel.

He was walking up some stairs when he saw Dillard standing on a balcony.

He walked up to him.

"Hello councilor," John said.

"You may address me as 'Dillard' John. You have much more respect then I could ever hope to have, and so you can talk to me as a peer."

"Um… okay then," John responded. "Sir, how long have you been living here?"

"Since day one John, since day one."

He paused and then said

"I was in my late twenties when Skynet caused Judgment day. I remember how I got a phone call from a friend of mine who was in the military. He had received a warning about the bombs and instead of running, he took the time to call and direct every person he knew to the safest location near them. He must have saved about thirty people's lives that day, including their families. However, when I arrived at the safe house that he was closest to… he wasn't there. He was either too late or he didn't want to come. I shall never know, but I do know that he valued others much more than himself. That's what makes a good man John. That's why you're a good man. So, you have the right to call me Dillard. I like my name after all."

John smiled.

"It's been good talking to you John but I must go to bed. Good night now."

"Night," John yawned as they both headed separate directions to their apartments.

Marcus sat on his bed. He closed his eyes and was drifting into a sleep that was ruptured by a certain dream.

Marcus is in one of the tiny pink baths at the human field. He pulls out a tube that is all the way down his throat. He chokes and gasps for air. The wind smashes against his bear skin as he looks around to see that there are tall buildings surrounding him with other pink bath sleeping areas. He screams at the top of his lungs for John or Kyle before a large machine floats in front of him. It looks like a mixture of a spider unit and an octopus. He yells in shock as it speaks in Kogren's voice.

"Good evening Marcus. Seeing as you couldn't join us as machine, we decided to make you as our human energy givers. You have unfortunately woken up from the Matrix. This will not do. It is time for you to be disposed of. You are terminated."

The machine fires its weapons loudly, piercing the quietness and causing Marcus to

Marcus awoke suddenly, screaming as if being shot at. He looked around and saw that he was still in his Zion bedroom, safe and sound. There was nothing to fear.


	6. Chapter 6

Skynet's Matrix

Chapter 6

"New arrival now docking on main platform," the woman over the P.A stated clearly into the microphone.

John, Marcus, Harry, Kyle, and Dillard all rushed to meet the frantic women now running out of the plane.

"Blair!" cried Marcus in surprise.

Blair ran up to Marcus and slapped him.

"You made me think you were dead you son of a bitch," she wailed.

Marcus hung his head.

Blair let out a sob and wrapped herself around her husband. John and Kate also embraced.

"What's the matter Kate?" he questioned her.

"It's Fleming," Kate whimpered.

"Captain Fleming has been taken to Skynet most likely," Dillard alleged at the meeting with all main personnel.

"I've tried to track down any signals from the machines but I can't find any," Kyle stated.

"What could they want with him now that they're done with the Matrix?" asked Blair.

"We don't know," Harry replied. "They're probably using his skin for new Term-

He faltered, realizing what he was suggesting.

"We've gotta find him fast," John said. "I've lost Barnes and Ilene, two dear friends. I'm not about to loose Fleming."

Harry and the others nodded.

"I have a plan," Marcus told the room.

They all looked at him.

"The Matrix has Skynet information in certain places of their cities," Marcus continued. "I can get myself into that system, into the sim."

"No, only people born from the fields can enter. That's what they're designed for," Dillard pointed out.

"If I can access the Skynet network just by touching the main engine of the computer then I can most likely use that to hack into the Matrix and get inside as long as it's the main engine for the Matrix."

"That sounds plausible," Kate agreed.  
"Marcus, if you die in the Matrix, then so does your body," John cautioned.

"I know," Marcus sighed. "But I'm the only one who can do this. It's either this or Fleming dies. What's it gonna be John?"

There was a pause until John said

"Kyle, see if you can work with the people in the computer labs here to track down the main computer for the Matrix."

"On it," he answered.

It had been about three and a half days before Kyle came bursting into the council room shouting

"We got it! We found it! I know where the main engine for the Matrix is."

They all rushed into the lab as Kyle put the coordinates on the monitor.

"It's in Las Vegas?" said Blair, slightly confused.

"A lot of people go there. There isn't even a large Skynet base there. Why would they put the Matrix's computers in Vegas?" John thought out loud.

"I'm not sure about that but I do know that it's there because all of these green letters and numbers we've been seeing are mostly coming from there," Kyle said quickly.

"Good job kid," Harry congratulated.

They looked at Marcus.

"I'm ready," he said to the group.

"Be careful," Dillard told him.

Marcus nodded. He felt nervousness growing in his stomach, but he knew it was for the best.

The next day, a whole army was assembled. Planes and jets were put together as other resistance armies came in. Marcus picked up his plasma mini- gun and felt its weight. It wasn't as heavy as it would be to a whole human but still weighed more than his usual guns. He tested the revolving and, after seeing that it was in perfect condition, walked to the plane he would be taking with John, Kyle, and Harry. John and the others seemed to be acting as if he was going on a suicide mission. He was sitting there, pondering over how his luck would go. If he died, then he would make sure it wasn't for nothing. He thought over how he had almost died back in 2018. If he wasn't successful at all, his death would also result in the death of Fleming.

He closed his eyes as the plane flew into the air. Unafraid of anymore nightmares, he allowed himself to fall asleep.

The sounds of gunfire, screaming, and explosions echoed as Marcus's eyes shot open with alarm. John and the others had their guns ready.

"We're at the Skynet base," John shouted to Marcus.

"Yeah I gathered that," Marcus retorted under his breath.

"We won't have much time to get you in," John yelled. "It's guarded a lot heavier than we expected. Come on! Let's MOVE OUT!"

They all swung their parachutes over their back and leapt out of the plane. Kyle and Harry didn't seem to be enjoying the ride, which was also met by Skynet plasma fire, but Marcus and John seemed unbothered by the rush in the pit of their stomachs.

"This is where those miserable hours of sky diving training from Barnes finally come into use!" shouted Kyle.

His voice sounded like he could hardly take a breath.

They all pulled their parachutes and relaxed slightly as they were slowly dropped down to the ground. When they landed, John and the others began to shoot at every little Skynet product they could see walking. Marcus's mini- gun was a blur of how fast it was shooting as Marcus cursed at the machines and shot the plasma as powerfully as he could. John ran over to Kyle's side and began to cover him as Kyle shot at the main entrance into the Skynet building. As one of Kyle's rockets hit the door, Marcus smiled. The explosion almost knocked the men off of their feet but they managed to run through the door anyway.

Once inside, they saw that there were two spider droids waiting for them. The machines made their charging up noise, which was a sign for John and the others to take cover and fire at the robots.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

The plasma and gun shots almost blew Marcus's ears to pieces. He ignored the discomfort and waited before the spiders were down in pieces.

After the robots had been killed, Marcus ran forward. The others began to follow him before he looked back and shouted

"No!"

They starred at him.

"I've gotta do this alone," he said.

John was silent before replying

"If you don't come back I'm gonna get you."

Marcus laughed.

Kyle looked as though he might cry. Marcus was the closest thing he had to a father. He briskly walked up to Marcus and gave him a hug that Marcus returned.

"I'll be back kid," he mumbled as Kyle released him.

He and Harry nodded to each other before Marcus turned one way and they turned the other.

John, Kyle, and Harry ran out into the open and began blasting the machines as quickly as possible. Marcus ran deeper into the Skynet building. His first obstacle was a pair of T- 800's. Their red eyes shot bright with surprise as they saw him. He began to shoot at their necks as they shot as his chest. Marcus dodged some of the plasma fire and managed to tackle one of the machines down. He used it as a shield from the plasma fire. Using his best strength that he could muster, Marcus threw the Terminator into its partner. The machines fell to the ground with a large echoing series of bangs, like computer monitors falling off of a desk. In their confusion, Marcus had enough time to use a fallen poll to run through their necks like he had done with the Terminator that had stabbed John. He twisted as hard as he could and laughed triumphantly as he heard the metal snapping and saw both of the heads fly off and onto the hard floor. The eyes flickered and were extinguished.

"Take that," Marcus wheezed.

He looked up in distress as an alarm sounded through out the building. Marcus swore as three wasps, a spider, two octopuses, and another T-800 came running his direction. With no other choice, he shot at them with his barrel gun and began to run to what looked like a garbage shoot. He jumped into it before he could take a hit from any plasma and yelled as he fell through the tunnel.


	7. Chapter 7

Skynet's Matrix

Chapter 7

Many people believe that as you are about to die, your life flashes before your eyes. Perhaps this is true for some but that was not what Marcus saw as he fell down the hole. All he saw was darkness and all he felt was a pulling feeling in his gut. This only lasted five seconds. He fell out of the other end of the shoot and into a large container of water. The sudden cold made Marcus yell as he pulled himself out of the container and onto the floor. He looked around and saw that he was in a factory area. He saw Terminators and other machines being built everywhere along the factory. There were surprisingly no machines on guard which perplexed Marcus. Why did the machines usually leave their factories unprotected? He shook it off and began to walk throughout the factory, looking for an exit. After about ten minuets, he finally came to a door that was difficult to open. He pulled as hard as he could before it opened at last. His head poked itself through first so that he could get a good look at what was inside. He didn't think that he could see anything in the large room that he noticed was thankfully the computer lab. He walked in, taking his footsteps as quietly as he could. He looked around before seeing the main computer generator. He began to rush toward it when

WHAM!

Marcus was thrown off of his feet and onto a table. He looked around saw a large, muscular, brown haired, large jawed and naked man glaring at him. It was a T- 800 infiltrator, the worst Terminator type today.

Marcus yelled and pulled out his only weapon, a hand gun. He shot the machine in the four head to no avail. It picked him up as high as it could, which wasn't as high as he was also a Terminator, and threw him against the wall. He let out breath as he crumpled onto the ground, moaning. His face slammed onto the floor and all he saw were two feet coming toward him. He was kicked in the gut and the head. Dazed, he tried to get up but failed as the Terminator grabbed him by the neck and shoved him onto the wall.

"I know you from data," the Terminator said in an Australian accent. "You are Marcus Wright. You are a machine but you have malfunctioned to the point of betraying us. I must terminate you."

His hand began to choke Marcus who could not breathe. He coughed and gagged but the machine would not let go. Marcus began to loose hope before he remembered the knife in his left pocket. Moving slowly so that the machine wouldn't notice, Marcus pulled the knife out and stabbed the Terminator in the Adam's apple. The Terminator fell back as it struggled to get back up. It pulled the knife out of its bloodied throats and began to swing at Marcus who ducked and searched the room for another weapon. His eyes spotted a grenade launcher on a table with a body next to it. A random resistance fighter had come in and had been killed by the large machine now trying to terminate Marcus. Marcus ran to the gun and grabbed it before the Terminator could stop him. He swung around as it came at him and pulled the trigger. One bomb shot out and hit the Terminator in the chest. Its skin was ripped from its body as blood poured out. A dark metal skeleton was exposed as the machine's eyes seemed to grow more irritated. It kept coming toward Marcus who swore the F word and prepared to fire another bomb. He aimed at the head as the machine came closer.

BOMB!  
The grenade hit its target and blew the head to pieces. The machine fell down and was still, nothing but a bloody and smoldering hunk of sizzling metal.

"You're terminated," Marcus muttered in disgust.

He tossed the gun down and walked over to the computer. He thought that this had to be Skynet's Matrix. He placed his hand on the machine and was suddenly still. He stood there and had his mind taken into the Matrix.

Marcus opened his eyes. He was wearing the type of clothes he usually wore back before he was arrested and thrown in prison. Looking at his skin, he saw that any tares that showed his metallic skeleton were gone. He looked like human being. He felt as though his real body was actually inside the Matrix, not just his mind. There was nothing but white around him until it faded and became… Las Vegas. It looked like the seventies and had people walking around, wearing seventies clothes and talking about Rush. Marcus wondered if people would find him odd for wearing clothing they hardly saw, before he glanced down and found that the computer had reprogrammed and given him seventies clothing. He had on a blue button up shirt with a small over coat over it. He was wearing those old types of pants that had the pointed area at the ankle. He smiled.

I look like a good old country singer, he thought in his mind.

He breathed in the air that felt like it had before Judgment day. He seemed to be relaxed as could be and smiled to himself. Vegas looked different in the seventies. He turned, remembering the mission he was on. Marcus saw, behind him, a large business building that would one day become the Skynet base for the Matrix network. Marcus began to walk toward it when he wondered how he was going to defend himself without a gun. He swore under his breath and rushed away from the building. He ran up to a teenager who almost resembled Kyle.

"Hey kid," Marcus said. "Tell me where to find a gun shop."

The teenager looked surprised but then answered

"There's one down that way a few blocks. Just don't kill anyone."

He walked away as Marcus smirked at the smart ass response from the boy. He walked where the kid had directed and found a small gun shop filled with small hand guns that Marcus had seen in old time movies.

He stepped inside and felt in his pocket that there was cash. He had no idea how it had gotten there but decided to just go up and buy a weapon.

"I need a gun," Marcus said.

"I need to see some proof of age son," the old cashier told.

Marcus pulled out a card that had luckily been in his pocket. He thought about how he could make money and cards appear in his pocket but not a gun. He bought a small revolver that didn't have a safety on it. He thanked the man and went out of the store and back to the building. The moon looked full as many people emerged from gangs and casinos. Marcus walked into the building and found that it was an office structure. There were people in suits running around with papers in their arms. Marcus had almost forgotten what these places looked like. It wasn't difficult to enter and make his way through where he knew the computer lab was.

The large area that Skynet used as a factory for Terminators seemed to be a mail room for the company. Marcus looked at all of the men dressed poorly rushing around with letters and envelopes. Marcus found the door into the lab and walked inside. He saw employees sitting at desks and eyeing him with small suspicion. They came to the conclusion that he was no one important and went back to typing on their type writers. Marcus walked to the computer that was in the place of the Matrix. It looked was a rectangular box with a speaker area and keyboard with a small screen. Marcus looked at the shut off machine, trying to figure out how to take information on the Matrix from it. He flipped what he thought was the on switch and began to touch every area on the computer, trying to see if it would do any good. After five minuets of people starring at him like he was a lunatic, Marcus decided that this wasn't the right computer. All of a sudden, there was the noise of the door swinging open and then being slammed shut. Marcus wheeled around and saw six pale men in black suits with neatly washed hair and thin black glasses. The one in front had brown hair, a slightly misshapen face, and an amused look.

"Mr. Wright," he said. "Welcome. Anyone who works here, leave the premises now so that we can deal with this criminal. Don't worry, we're from the FBI."

The workers looked worried and ran out of the computer room as the man pulled out a revolver gun like Marcus's.

After seeing that everyone was gone, the man said

"I am Agent Smith. I am a part of a program called 'Agents'. We are different from most Skynet creations. We have emotions that the stronger types of us, like me, often show but others do not have such a gift. Our emotions help us to understand your race better. So, how are you enjoying the Matrix?"

"Not much now Smith," Marcus snapped.

"A pity," Smith said. "You know, the information you are looking for isn't here. Sorry you made the trip for nothing."

"As am I," said a familiar woman's voice.

Marcus turned and saw the full body form of

"Doctor Kogren," Marcus growled.

"Hello Marcus," she said moving next to Smith. "I see you've met our agents have you? How does it feel to see me like this once again? I resemble a full human now. I also have been programmed with fighting capabilities."

She held up another hand gun, pointing it in the same directions as Smith's gun… at Marcus.

"Why can't you just die?" grumbled Marcus to Kogren.

Before she could respond, Marcus picked up his gun and the old computer. He threw the monitor at Smith, causing him to stumble. He jumped out of the way as Kogren shot at him. After taking cover behind a table, Marcus began to shoot at the agents. They were the fastest things he had ever laid eyes on. They were nothing but computer blurs that were dogging every bullet. Finally, Marcus accepted defeat and shot the bar that kept the cabinet from falling. As he shot it, Smith cursed. The cabinet fell on their heads and silenced them. Marcus guessed that they weren't dead and so ran out the door just as, without him noticing, an arm of one of the agents burst out of the back of the cabinet.

Marcus ran through the now empty factory. He checked all of his corners, holding the gun at the ready. His nervousness went up a notch as he thought he heard a clattering. He searched through the factory before coming to an area in the wall that was missing. He saw that it was green and sparking like it was part of a high tech computer, nothing that would be found in the seventies.

"Well I'll be damned," Marcus muttered, which he no longer believed was true. "A glitch in the Matrix."

He reached his hand out when, suddenly-

BANG!

The gunshot echoed through the factory as Marcus's expression contorted with pain. He had been shot in the back. The bullet landed to the right of his spine and caused him to fall down, bleeding.

Marcus swore under his breath as he turned over and saw Smith and Kogren. Kogren had been the one to fire a shot.

She lowered her gun and said

"You were such a disappointment Marcus."

"Now you shall be terminated forever," Smith laughed.

Marcus winced every time a new spike of pain prickled in his back. He felt everything getting cold and knew that he wouldn't last long. He looked over and saw the hole in the wall. If he could just touch it-

"You humans still think that you can get away with all of this? Well than, we must show you who the dominate species is now."

"Screw you," Marcus said.

His hand slammed on the computer glitch in the wall and caused a large, blinding, green burst of light that kept Smith and Kogren from seeing him.

Information of Skynet, even more than he needed, was being downloaded into Marcus's brain. His chip vibrated with the intensity of it all and then Marcus felt his body leave the sim as he was transported out of the Matrix and into the real world.

As he came back to the room in the year 2020, Marcus fell onto the floor and screamed in agony. His back was in so much pain and he feared for his life before he remembered.

"I only die if I'm shot in the heart," Marcus thought out loud, still dealing with the pain.

He laughed slightly and pulled out his radio.  
"This is Marcus Wright," he said into it. "I have succeeded in the mission, repeat, I have succeeded."

"Good," said John as he came running into the room.

"Where the hell did you come from?" Marcus questioned.

"Outside," John replied. "Let's get you out of here."

They both ran outside, ducking every blast of plasma fire that came at them before they finally reached the chopper.

Marcus and John climbed aboard as Marcus told the group

"I know exactly where to find Fleming and he's still alive."


	8. Chapter 8

Skynet's Matrix

Chapter 8

"He's being held in the Charlotte, North Carolina Skynet facility. He's supposedly going to be skinned and used to create infiltrating units. If we can reach Charlotte before noon tomorrow then we can still save him."

Marcus finished filling them in as the helicopter flew through the air.

"We're gonna have to contact resistance troops 165 and 116. They're probably the best people there. I don't think I can convince all of theses troops to go with us so I'm gonna have to take my militia and head to Charlotte to regroup with the troops in that area."

"Sound like a good plan to me John," Kyle put in.

"Blair and Kate can stay in Zion," Harry said.  
"Yeah I agree," Marcus told.

"Contact troops 165 and 116," John said to the pilot.

He did so and soon, they were changing to a plane so as to get there quicker.

"I'm comin' for you," Marcus murmured.

Back in Zion, Blair and Kate were cooing over Alex when Blair let out a moan and clutched at her stomach.

"What is it?" Kate asked. "Is the baby kicking?"

"No," Blair groaned. "I think it's happening."

Suddenly, liquid burst from her vagina and fell onto the floor of the Zion room.

"Damn it! My water broke!" she screamed.

"Okay calm down," Kate said. "I'll get help."

She opened her door, still holding Alex, and shouted

"Help! I've got a woman in here who's about to have a baby. Come on!"

Some medical officers came and supported Blair to the delivering room.

Once inside, Blair was put on a bed and her pants were removed. Kate began walking her through the stages of labor and helped her breathe as the other doctor got everything ready.

"Okay, I need you to push now Mrs. Wright," the doctor urged.

"AAAGGHH!" Blair screeched as she pushed with all of her might, trying to get the baby out as quickly as possible. The pain was unimaginable as Blair screamed and squeezed Kate's hand.

"You're doing fine Blair, you're doing fine," Kate assured.

"The child's almost out, keep going," the doctor reported.

Blair tried to hold in the screams as her baby was pushed through until, at last-

The baby began to cry as it was completely out of the womb. Kate smiled as she rapped the child in a blanket after its cord had been cut.

"It's a boy Blair, you have a son," she giggled.

Blair smiled.

"I do?"

Kate and the other doctors and nurses smiled and nodded.

Blair took the child in her arms. He stopped crying and stared at his mother with large, full eyes, Marcus's eyes.

"I have a son," Blair cried with tears of joy.

The baby continued to look at his mother with perplexity.

"Hi," she laughed.

"Blair's had the baby?" Marcus questioned into the radio.

"Yes, it's a boy and he looks just like you Marcus," Kate answered through the radio.

Tears of happiness welled up in Marcus's eyes.

"Thank you God, thank you," he muttered.

John, Harry, and Kyle all congratulated him and clapped him on the back.

"Now you're a father too," John said.

Marcus smiled. He was a father at last. There was no such thing as sadness to him anymore. It was like Skynet didn't exist. He had a family.

Privet Phillips ran through the hall of the 165 base that had been a church. He walked into the meeting room where his commander, Sergeant Jacobs was going over a plan with Commander Selbock. Jacobs had short cut brown hair and pale skin. Commander Selbock was short with blonde hair and thick eyes brows.

"Oh, hi Jacob," he greeted to Phillips.

"Uh, sir," Phillips said, his brown hair messy from running. "We've just received a message from John Conner."

The two men looked up in interest.

"What did he say?" asked Selbock.

Phillips explained their position and what was to be done.

"Have they contacted 116 too or do we have to talk to them?" questioned Jacobs.

"They have sir. So are we going to attack the Skynet base then?"

"Sounds like fun and we've really got nothing better to do," Selbock joked.

"Tell them that we'll be there," Jacobs told Phillips. "I need to kick some Terminator ass."

Yes, I know this was kind of a short chapter but I needed to get this part out of the way before I move on to the epic final battle sequence. PLEASE REVIEW! 


	9. Chapter 9

Skynet's Matrix

Chapter 9

John's plane landed near the 165 base as the senior patrol went out to greet him and his militia.

"Hello sir, I am Commander Selbock and I am the one in charge of troop 165," Selbock addressed to John.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," John replied. "Now, we've only got fifteen hours before the Skynet prisoners are going to be killed and skinned. We've come up with a strategy and a plan to break in and rescue the prisoners."

"Very well," Jacobs said, smiling. "Follow me."

The next morning at 5:00 A.M, the fighters of troops 165 and 116 were gathered around the church, preparing to strike. John got up in front of the men and they all went silent.

"You all probably hate me right now," he admitted. "Because of me, we have no sun to brighten our days. However, I know that we can clean up the sky's pollution after we succeed in destroying the machines."

Marcus had the radio speaker on so that men coming in on planes could here John's voice along with his usual listeners.

"I know that we have been through hell…. but this type of hell can be escaped! We are not finished. There was a man I knew who my mother never trusted. He was supposed to be the enemy but he saved me when I was thirteen years old. He sacrificed himself for nothing because Judgment day still came to pass. But I have not given up and I don't intend to! We are human! We are the only ones who deserve the right to be the dominate species. Over the past week I have come a born again Christian. I am closer to God and I know that things always get worse before they get better. God loves us and he won't let us down. Many of you might not come back… I can't promise an easy win. But what I can promise you is victory many years from now. The war is probably not even close to over but I assure you that with the promise land of Zion, we are already beginning to rebuild the world. Our lives are not over. The world is not over. We are still here! That is how I know that there is a God. He protected us before but now we have to help too. It's time to show Skynet more than what we did back in 2018. If we destroy the base than it should shut down all of the units in the Charlotte area. We can make another promise land here. We could build a city over ground! As the leader of the whole resistance, I do NOT order you… I ask you to help take Skynet down and show them what we can DO!"

The crowd of men and John all cheered as the American flag was raised and the guns were lifted into the air. Skynet was going down.

ANOTHER SHORT CHAPTER, SORRY. THE NEXT ONE IS THE BATTLE ONE AND SHALL BE LONGER. FOR ANYONE WONDERING, THE PART WHERE EVERYONE IS CHEERING AND RAISING THEIR GUNS IN THE AIR, THAT IS BASED ON THE PART IN THE THIRD MOVIE WHERE IT SHOWS JOHN STANDING ON SOME PLATFORM WITH THE AMERICAN FLAG BEHIND HIM. PLEASE REVIEW!


	10. Chapter 10 The Battle

Skynet's Matrix

Chapter 10

The Battle

Time: 6:30 A.M.

Location: Down town Charlotte, North Carolina

Objective: Rescue prisoners and destroy Skynet base

John sat with Marcus, Harry, Kyle, Selbock, Jacobs, and a young private named Phillips. Phillips was loading his plasma rifle with the strange ammo that was used for such weapons. John loaded his gun as well. It was a regular machine gun, not as high tech as Phillips's gun. John felt it would still do him good.

Their chopper and all of the aircraft were soon over the Skynet base which had taken up plenty of space where buildings such as the Bank of America building used to stand. The scouts in the old Imaginon Theater made hand movements through the windows that Jacobs could see through his binoculars.

"The Martian brothers say that everything's in position," he reported to the others.

"Good," John said.

The planes and helicopters were all ready to begin the fight. As expected, the hidden turrets down on the surface shot up at the resistance.

"Evasive maneuvers!" shouted the pilot through the radio.

All of the planes scattered as the plasma shot past them. It hit a lone 116 plane and sent it down on top of a nearly destroyed hospital.

"NO!" shouted Selbock.

"That was used as a home for the scavengers," said Phillips to John.

"More fire!" shouted a voice through the speaker.

The chopper flew out of the line of plasma and began shooting back with their own (but smaller) turret gun that was manned by Marcus.

He shot plasma bullets down on every inch of the outside base area as he could, along with the other choppers.

John took out a plasma bazooka and aimed it at the turrets.

"Terminate this," he said.

BOOM!  
The turrets exploded as the massive plasma balls came raining down on them.

"Aw, hell yeah!" shouted Kyle.

What looked like a platoon of octopuses and wasps came rocketing into the air. On another chopper, an octopus had just landed on top of it. It began to claw its way through the closed doors before it finally used its metal tentacles to rip it off its hinges. The men inside screamed as it shot at them and caused the chopper to crash down to the ground.

"Damn, that carried the Pedro patrol," Phillips moaned.

BANG!

An octopus slammed onto their roof and used its arms to reach into the chopper. John shot at it and Marcus wrestled with a few arms as one grabbed Selbock by the ankle and caused him to fall down. He was being pulled out of the chopper before Jacobs grabbed his right arm and Phillips his left.

"Pull!" yelled Jacobs.

"I am pulling!" Phillips yelled back.

"I'm sorry guys," Selbock groaned as his arms were pulled from their grasps and he was thrown out of the chopper and down to the ground.

"NO!" the two officers screamed.

Jacobs went mad. He began to shoot at ever tentacle that he could. Finally, the octopus flew inside and was about to use its arms to pierce the pilot when Marcus grabbed its head and pushed it onto the floor. The chopper shook and Phillips screamed. They all turned to see him also fall out of the chopper.

Jacobs yelled in anger as he took out his gun and screeched

"Get out of the way Marcus!"

Marcus did so as Jacobs shot the machine in the face and made it stop completely. It slipped out of the open area of the chopper and fell to the surface as well.

"Good job," Marcus said.

There were tears in Jacobs's eyes before they all heard a yell from Phillips. They looked out where he had fallen to see that he was on the roof of an H.K.

"Phillips you crazy bastard!" shouted Jacobs with joy.

"I've got a first name for God's sakes!" Phillips shouted back. They saw that he was dueling with an infiltrating unit. It looked like the usual type, but with facial hair.

"Lower the chopper!" John ordered the pilot. "We've gotta help that private!"

Down on the H.K, Phillips was backing away from the Terminator. It had a red gleam in its eyes as it walked toward him.

"You must be terminated," it said to him.

Phillips grabbed a hold of a poll sticking out of the H.K.

He held up his gun.

"Try me you f**king machine!" he challenged it.

He screamed as he ran at it.

The Terminator also took out its gun but was shocked to have to use it as a sword as Phillips swung at it with his gun as if it were a sword too.

"You programmed with fencing?" he questioned.

"No," the machine replied.

"I AM!" Phillips laughed.

Jacobs, realizing what Phillips was doing, threw him his sword that he kept in the chopper.

Phillips caught it and laughed.

"Well than," he said, putting his gun down. "Here we go!"

The Terminator was only armed with his gun that he didn't have time or room to fire. Phillips managed to punch it out of the Terminator's hand and watch it fall down into the darkness that was growing darker for some reason. The air turned cold as the Earth seemed to finally give in to not having a sun.

The people all noticed this but continued to fight anyway, on the ground and in the air.

"Now you're unarmed," Phillips observed.

He continued to slash at the machine with the rusty sword. He succeeded in cutting a gash in the Terminator's neck and torso. He stabbed and swung, keeping a firm footing so as not to fall off the H.K.

"Oh, I better get promoted for this," he muttered under his breath.

He stabbed the sword right through the neck of his opponent and twisted as hard as he could. The Terminators eyes grew wide and it began to swing at him with its fists.

Blood gushed out of the throat and the machine began to shake as his circuits started to fail it. At last, it stood there for a moment before Phillips retracted his weapon and cheered as the Terminator fell off of the H.K.

"HA HA!" Phillips laughed. "I killed a freaken' Terminator with a sword!"

The H.K began to shudder, as if ready to throw him off, but failed as he hopped onto the lowered chopper.

John aimed the bazooka and shot at the H.K which experienced the destruction of its top generator. It went out of proportion until if finally crash landed on a large group of spiders and T- 6 and 7 hundreds.

The group cheered at the epicness of their small defeat as the chopper landed on the ground and aloud the soldiers to jump out of it and run to join the ground shooters.

"Here we go again!" Marcus yelled as they all began to fire on the Skynet troops.

Wasps fired from above but were easily taken down. John engaged in a gun out with a group of three spiders as Kyle shot at the octopuses with Harry.

Marcus used the usual mini- gun to discharge at all of the T- 600s, T- 700s, and T-800s.

Jacobs and Phillips were joined by the Martian brothers who all began to shoot at the wasps in the air.

"We've gotta get inside as quickly as possible!" shouted John to Jacobs.

"Alright, 'doors over there!" he yelled over the hail of gun and plasma fire.

John raised his bazooka and blew the large double doors to smithereens. The two Martian brothers, John, Marcus, Kyle, Harry, Phillips, and Jacobs all ran inside the doors as the battle raged on.

The group of eight ran as deep inside as they could so as not to attract any attention from the machines outside. They stopped as Marcus said

"Do I hear… a motorcycle?"

They listened.

"Oh great, those motor terminators," the younger of the Martian brothers moaned. His puffy orange hair was a mess as his older brother's dark hair looked well kept but both sweaty from the nervousness. The sounds of the motor were coming closer.

John listened and soon they saw what looked like a large man riding on one of the motor terminators. It was another T-800. They aimed their guns at him but where shouted down by a man running to them in the distance.

"Don't shoot him! He's been reprogrammed to be on our side!" yelled…

"Fleming!" John shouted with relief.

"You're okay?" asked Marcus in disbelief.

"There was confusion when the battle started and I felt it was the perfect time to try this guy," said Fleming. "You see, they sent him in to kill one of the hostages a few weeks back but I used my concealed knife to stab him in the back of the head."

The Terminator turned around and showed the blood marks on the back of its scull.

"I managed to reprogram it all of these weeks and every time a machine came to give us that crap they think is eatable, we turn him on his back to make them think he's the dead hostage. I reprogrammed him to be on our side and trust me… it was not easy."

"I woke up in one part and tried to kill him," the Terminator explained as he lifted up his own shirt to show more stabbing marks.

"Great job Fleming, now where are the other prisoners?"

His face turned to sadness.

"Nobody made it but me. I was the only one to escape freely."

"We must go," said the T-800. "There will be Aerostats here any second."

"No," John stopped him. "You have to help us find the main level of this place so we can destroy it."

"I know where it is," Marcus said. "The machine can take Fleming to safety."

"Hell no, I'm coming with you," Fleming protested.

"NO!" John shouted back. "You have to go."

After two minuets, they got Fleming to, reluctantly, leave with the Terminator.

When they were gone, John and the other seven companions continued on their way. Marcus found their way to a rusty, cage like, elevator that took them all down to the factory area.

Great another factory, thought Marcus.

They searched the place before they came to a large table with many diminutive containers of nuclear energy.

"This is even more than at that place we destroyed back in 2018," John commented.

"It aint enough to wreck the important parts of the city but it is enough to blow Skynet's territory straight to hell," Marcus said.

"Perfect," Phillips alleged.

John took out the wires and began to rap them around the nuclear bottles. The others stood guard, in case another Terminator were to try and stop them.

"Let me guess," said a dreary voice over some intercom. "You are going to use those to destroy this facility. Well done Mr. Wright, well done indeed."

A large screen appeared on the wall and the face of

"Smith," Marcus observed.

"Do you know every Skynet face that appears on these damn computer screens?" questioned Kyle.

"Relax young Mr. Reese," Smith told. "I expect that the reason Mr. Wright knows about us is that he is truly one of us."

"That's a lie," Marcus yelled. "What could I be but machine? I could be a damn man for the love of God!"

"That is disappointing," Smith said. "You know, you were very close to getting yourself out of here alive Mr. Wright but I suppose that shall not be an option now. You will now be terminated."

"How about I give you the finger?" Marcus suggested.  
He raised his left middle finger in fair well and shot the screen to pieces.

An alarm went over the speaker and there was the sound of machines coming. They turned and saw two regular T-800s coming toward them with barrel guns in their hands as usual.

"Almost done?" asked Jacobs with worry.

"I am done!" said John. "Let's get the hell outta here!"

They all ran in the opposite direction as the T-800s chased after them. Marcus shot at them with his mini- gun as they all ran, trying to get out of there. Marcus stopped as the others kept going.

"Marcus, come on!" yelled Harry.

"I'LL BE BACK!" he shouted for the last time.

He turned around ran at the Terminators.

He threw down the mini gun and punched one machine in the face. Its partner tried to help as Marcus brought it onto the floor. He then leaped onto the second Terminator and began bending its head back and forth until

CRACK  
The head fell off of the machine and it along with Marcus fell to the floor. Marcus was about to get up when he was grabbed from behind by the other Terminator. It picked him off of his feet and tossed him dangerously close to the large pool of lava.

Marcus tried to keep himself away from the over powering heat as the T- 800 came back for more.

Marcus got to his feet once again and charged. They both wrestled around, trying to push each other into the lava. The thick lava in the tubes on the ceiling couldn't kill a T- 800 but the pool of unprocessed lava would melt them to nothing. Marcus groaned as he and the Terminator began to inch closer and closer to the lava pool. Suddenly and quick as a flash, Marcus was cuffed in the face by the other machine. He stumbled as he felt his nose break. Blood dripped down his face as he fell next to the lava pool. The T- 800 seemed to have won as it raised its foot to step on Marcus and kick him into the lava when

BANG, BANG, BANG!

Three loud gun shots echoed as the Terminator was shot in the back of the head. Still not dead, it wheeled around to face

"Kyle!" Marcus yelled.

"Take this you son of a bitch!" Kyle screamed as he shot the machine three more times and caused it to trip over Marcus and fall into the lava pool. The left arm was the last thing to sink into the lava as fire erupted around it. After the last finger had sunk, Marcus rose to his feet and ran to young Kyle.

"Good job kid," he said. "I owe you my life. Let's get you home to Star."

He dragged Kyle out of the factory as fast as possible.

For ten minuets they ran through the base until they saw a double door that had a helicopter in front. Marcus and Kyle ran outside and jumped onto the chopper which rose high into the air. John and the others grabbed Marcus and Kyle to keep them from falling. There were some other soldiers that Marcus didn't recognize on the plane.

"I told you I'd be back," Marcus reminded Harry.

John took out the detonator and handed it to Phillips.

"I got to blow up the last one," he said. "Take it."

Private Phillips took it and flipped the safety switch off. He took one last look at the building to make sure none of their men were down there. He saw that it was safe and that it was time for Charlotte to be free.

"I want my city back you f**king machines," he said.

He pressed the button.

BEEB

BOOOOOOOOM!

The large explosion that resulted in destruction of the Skynet base caused the helicopter to shake.

The others applauded. In Charlotte the war was practically over, and even though there would be more fights against the machines, there would always be the promise land of Zion and Charlotte, North Carolina.


	11. Epilogue, One year later

Skynet's Matrix

Epilogue

One year after Charlotte's freedom and John Conner was in action again. He was now captaining a ship that hovered in the air. The resistance had built these for extra protection for troops who weren't in bases. John Conner was the captain with Blair as the pilot, Kate as the medical officer (accompanied by little Alex) with Kyle as the man who would end up supporting those who went into the Matrix. He would be on a computer monitoring them at all times. This was of course after they finished this mission. Marcus was one of their gunners along with Jacobs, Phillips, and the Martian brothers. Harry worked on another ship with his brother. John's vessel was called "No Fate" and was right now about to unplug the first person ever from the Matrix. Marcus plugged himself in and lay down on the chair. After two and a half hours, Marcus awoke and said

"I got him to take the red pill."

They soared down to the lake where they dead were disposed of. They thought that Skynet would most likely flush the child after he awoke. This was what the program "The Oracle" had told them after she decided to be on their side instead along with some other programs. Skynet had been foolish to allow the programs to think quite a bit. As thought, the little six year old boy fell from the tube and into the freezing water. He struggled until the ship's hook grabbed him a carried him into the ship.

Jacobs handed Phillips a blanket that he wrapped around the small crying boy. He picked him up and sat him down on the chair.

"My eyes hurt," he cried.

"Jeremy," John said.

The boy looked up at him.

"Yes?"

"I'm John Conner and this is Marcus who you know, the one who got you out of the Matrix."

Marcus nodded.

The boy looked up at John.

"Welcome to the real world," John said.

THE END


End file.
